The Treaty of Lisbon vested the national parliaments of EU Member States with the possibility of direct participation in the European legislative process, thus attempting to overcome the Union’s democratic deficit. Earlier national parliaments only disposed with the possibility of indirect involvement in the EU affairs, through the scrutiny of governmental actions in the EU institutions. An option of both direct and indirect participation faces national parliaments with the choice of prioritized mode of involvement into the EU decision-making process. Research indicates that national parliaments with strong systems of governmental scrutiny mostly focus on indirect involvement. Croatian Parliament is the national parliament of a country that had become an EU Member State after entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which makes it an appropriate case for analysis of the effects of the Lisbon Treaty on national EU affairs management system. An analysis of formal rules concerning European affairs shows that a mandating system of parliamentary scrutiny is in place, indicating that indirect involvement is the priority of the Croatian Parliament. This shows that, at least in the Croatian case, the Lisbon Treaty does not represent a sufficient enticement for direct participation of national parliaments in the European legislative process.keywords: European affairs; national parliaments; Treaty of Lisbon; parliamentary scrutiny; Croatian Parliament

Many studies conducted in the past 30 years point to a significant contribution of extracurricular activities to the development of generic skills in children and young adults. At the same time, the connection between key competences related to lifelong learning, academic success, and personal development growth affected multiple student development theories. In order to meet the aim of education policy of lifelong learning, with a particular aim of contributing to the academic success and student employment, many universities are developing models of the assessment of extracurricular activities. Research about assessment of extracurricular activities at Croatian universities, conducted through five half-day deliberative workshops with 102 students, brings forward their perspective and recommendations of assessment models. Research shows that students recognize the importance of devotion to extracurricular activities, and, in doing so, critically think about the types of activities and competences that should be assessed. They assume that it is necessary to have a differentiated assessment of activities based on their connection with the field of study and based on the type of activity. As the most appropriate way of assessment, students suggest a model of activity track in the diploma supplement, but if the activity is related to the curriculum, they would like to obtain an appropriate number of ECTS credits. There are conflicting opinions concerning assessments of students' activity in student governance bodies.keywords: extracurricular activities; students' perspective; key competences; assessment; volunteering

Researchers have always found young people interesting as an indicator of the state of a society. Attitudes, values, competences and behavior of young people are considered a sort of litmus paper that can adequately explained wider social tendencies of a given society. This paper analyzes political competencies and political participation of Zagreb youth. Political competencies and political participation are two characteristics of quality of functioning of consolidated democracies. It is therefore important to monitor and develop them in order to achieve a more effective political system. With a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, the authors contextualize those two structural dimensions of the political life of young people. Hence, this paper explains political competences and political participation in reference to contemporary literature in this field. The results of a survey conducted on a sample of 411 young people in Zagreb, together with the results of five group interviews with high school and university students, demonstrate low level of understanding of roles and factors of youth policy. The authors argue that young people are discouraged to participate in community and political life because of such low understanding of politics.keywords: youth; political participation; political competences; Zagreb

This paper examines the background of regional affiliation in Istria, more exactly, the Istria County in the last twenty years. Analysis of the data from three consecutive censuses (1991, 2001 and 2011), as well as analysis of results from local elections in period 1993 -2013, demonstrated three facts related to regional identity affiliation in Istria. From the point of geographic and cartographic analysis, it can be concluded that there is no equivocal Istrianism embedded in territorial roots in the Istrian County, both in the context of time and place. Significant differences in the three analyzed census years, but no trends the levels of municipalities indicate that the Istrianism is somewhat an ambivalent phenomenon without prominent trends or constants. In addition, it can be concluded that this is not even a successful project of a multicultural melting pot, as all these years IDS claimed. It can be also concluded that the IDS, in political terms, is not the sole holder of these ideas. A final conclusion strives to prove that proclaimed connection between researched regional identity and European identity is also populist, not real one.keywords: Istria; Istrianism; regional identities; multiculturalism

The engagement of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina started twenty years ago and does not show any signs of ending. Its main goal is to create an internal polity architecture which would harmonize interethnic relations in this country and thus enable stability and prosperity. Given the fact Croats, Serbs and Muslims (Bosniaks) in Bosnia and Herzegovina had a status of constitutive, sovereign and mutually equal peoples already in the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this meant that a composite polity architecture should be sought. An acceptance of such a solution, which was initially manifested through the Cutileiro plan (18 March 1992), was one of the conditions on which Bosnia and Herzegovina gained international recognition. However, the echoes of Bosnian-Herzegovinian war events on the international scene have already in the second half of 1992 resulted in a strong support for a unitary Bosnian-Herzegovinian state in international circles. Attempts to impose such a concept, supported by Bosniaks and rejected by Croats and Serbs, strongly decreased the capacity of the international community to end the war. After the war, these attempts represent the main reason why the Washington-Dayton constitutional model of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot transpose into a functional state.keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; international community; Croats; Serbs; Bosniaks

This paper presents a conceptual analysis of the main external and internal determinants of foreign policy, basic theoretical approaches to foreign policy decision-making with regard to the pros and cons approach based on rational choice, which suggests establishing causality between the decision and the defined aim. In this context, the focus of this paper is on relations between foreign policy decision of Montenegro to cooperate with the Arab countries and objective regarding the promotion of economic prosperity and international position of Montenegro. By applying the method of content analysis, case analysis and comparative method, we came to the conclusion that the need for accelerated economic growth and improvement of living standard of Montenegrin citizens determines the decision on cooperation with Arab countries, notably with rich Persian Gulf countries, in order to attract investment that would contribute to the achievement of the mentioned objective.keywords: foreign policy; Montenegro; Arab World; investments; rational choice